"Is 2020 the year of the Linux Malware Pandemic?"

[mikewalsh]

Evening, all.

The title says it all. I found this article on MakeUseOf, just a little while ago.

https://www.makeuseof.com/linux-vulnerable-to-malware/

I wouldn't care to speculate if this is tech blog journalists indulging in their favourite (and well-known) pastime of "s**t-stirring", but it makes for thought-provoking reading. According to the author, plenty of infamous Windows 'nasties' have been ported across to Linux during the course of 2020 - doubtless by various hackers/malware 'groups' with too much time on their hands during the Covid pandemic.

Thought y'all should at least be made aware of this, anyway. Thoughts?

Mike.

[01101001b]

According to the author, plenty of infamous Windows 'nasties' have been ported across to Linux [...] Thoughts?

- Linux is not Wind*ws.
(There's only one wind*ws, although painted in different colors, but Linux variance is inmense. Let's give thanks for the "fragmentation" )

- Linux users are not that naive as wind*ws users (generally speaking).

- The author himself states: "[...] Linux users may not be as vulnerable to as many security threats as Windows users, [...]"

And

- the tips he provides to minimize exposure is basically "Security 101" for almost every sensible linux user with some experience.

So, in conclusion, "nothing new under the sun". There have been always dangers, and always there'll be. The trick is not to be in alert, but to be awake

[user1111]

Got not further than the first paragraph ...

Much of that perceived security comes from the relatively low number of Linux systems

Virgin (ISP) Hub's ... run *nix, so there alone has 10% of UK households running a Linux system, and that's just the tip.

But yes, Linux has increasingly become bloated and bending towards Windowsfication and all-encompassing, along with the negatives that involves. A consequence of the corporate funding/steering. As has intentional over-looking of poor coding rather than 'breaking userland'. The BSD's have been far less accommodating - at the expense of 'not being as flexible/expansive'. OpenBSD for instance is the full OS, there's no separation of kernel and commands as there is with the likes of kernel and busybox. And their documentation is extensive and directly tied to each version. They even consider man page errors as being a 'bug' - a security risk, i.e. if incorrectly documented that could lead to a bad configuration that opens up a security risk.

[Dingo]

IMHO, the very rising of malwares for Linux started when Micro$oft included a linux subsystem in Winblows. In fact, I think that crackers targets are not mainly linux users, but micro$oftian "point and click" monkeys with a running linux subsystem to exploit.

[mikewalsh]

IMHO, the very rising of malwares for Linux started when Micro$oft included a linux subsystem in Winblows. In fact, I think that crackers targets are not mainly linux users, but micro$oftian "point and click" monkeys with a running linux subsystem to exploit.

You may very well be right, Dingo. I guess one fact remains visible, however.....head & shoulders above the rest. And that is that the more disenchanted Windows users that come across to Linux, the more "bad habits" will migrate with them.

Such as clicking on everything under the sun, regardless of what it might be.....

So I guess it could be said that the "rot" started setting-in from the very first day the mainstream distros decided to try and attract Windows users. Go figure.

Mike.